Al and Jean Gaetz were in their arena seats in Row 8, in Section U near the blue line on Sunday, just as they were planning to do if their beloved Humboldt Broncos had reached Game 6.
They’ve held Broncos season tickets since 1973; they billeted young players for decades. Al, still selling real estate at age 82, used to be the team’s general manager and a key fundraiser.
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League club struggled early in this season. The Gaetzes didn’t expect them to get past the first round of the playoffs, but they beat Melfort four games to one. The couple watched the last game of the second round against the Nipawin Hawks, Game 4, after several Bronco shots found the back of the net and a few others hit the post, but the team lost 6-5 in triple overtime. “The way they played, they played their hearts out,” Al said.
The Gaetzes typically print out team rosters on game night—makeshift programs where they can scribble notes on the play. Ahead of Sunday night, though, they’d used a highlighter to mark up the “program,” marking the players and coaches who’d died on the team bus’ highway crash, en route to Nipawin last Friday for what should have been Game 5…

Poncho-clad Brock Pierce, a self-styled ‘cryptocurrency genius’, says investors shouldn’t be motivated by fear of missing out.
It has to be easier when markets are in a manic phase to pitch a big room of potential investors on sinking money into real estate, cryptocurrencies or cannabis stocks. But the recent turn in market fortunes wasn’t enough to dampen the sales hype at Saturday’s Real Estate and Bitcoin Wealth Expo in Toronto.
Speaker after speaker delivered a message of hope to attendees that if anything down markets just presented an even better time to buy. You can earn an easy $5,000 to $10,000 (extra) a month! Naysayers are just being negative, and you don’t need negativity in your life. And again, if we need to discuss declines in the real estate, Bitcoin and marijuana stock markets at all, just remember a market correction creates opportunities.
READ: When Toronto officially lost its mind over real estate
And yet, with the real estate market rolling over and cryptocurrencies down sharply, there were some signs of doubt on the other side of the stage…

CBC.caElderly Nova Scotia couple reunited in same nursing home following appealCBC.caEdwin and Marjorie Crossland were separated after 70 years when Edwin, 91, was assessed as not needing the same type of nursing home care as his wife, who suffers from dementia. (Submitted by Tammy Crossland). An Annapolis Valley couple in their 90s …Solutions to nursing home worker injuries seen as an investment: A Critical Choicecleveland.comNursing home residents dumped on hospitals more than 25000 timesCourier MailEd Vasicek: Let's put accent on responsibilityKokomo TribuneVnExpress International -Alton Daily News -The Hitavadaall 12 news articles »

We have recent British legislation to thank for providing a glimpse into the grim reality that Canadian banks operating across the pond have a big gendered wage gap. UK data, compiled this week by Bloomberg News, summons more evidence, as if more is required, that transparency, both legislatively and in conversation, is required if we’re ever going to bring an end to entrenched gendered wage inequity.
British legislation enacted earlier this year requires public, private and voluntary sector firms with over 250 employees to disclose average pay for men and women, including any bonuses. Already, the disclosures have summoned outraged headlines—and have caused high-profile women to quit their jobs in fury.  Now the klieg light cast on Canadian banks is equally illuminating.
READ: Why do men make more money than women?
Scotiabank, Canada’s third-biggest lender, pays women 44 per cent less than men on average in its UK operation, a gap that widens to 72 per cent when it comes to discretionary bonuses…

WINNIPEG _ A world-renowned video game company is setting up shop in Winnipeg.
Ubisoft, which is known for games like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, says it is opening an office in the city.
The French gaming giant plans to invest $35 million in the province, creating 100 jobs over the next five years.
There will be opportunity for engineers, tool programmers and technical artists.
The company already has teams in Montreal, Quebec City, Saguenay, Toronto and Halifax.
Minister of Growth, Enterprise and Trade Blaine Pedersen says the gaming giant’s move to Manitoba will help grow the tech talent pool in the province.
“This private capital investment in Manitoba will create new jobs and opportunities for Manitoba students and graduates in the interactive digital media, information and communications technology fields,” Pedersen said in a release Friday.
The Winnipeg Ubisoft studio will support some of the company’s most successful open-world games like Assassin’s Creed…

This post originally appeared at Better Dwelling. Stephen Punwasi is co-founder and chief data nerd at Better Dwelling.
Bank executives are all of a sudden very vocal about foreign buyers. Strange timing, since a branch of the Government of Canada quietly dropped a report expressing concerns regarding the Big Six last week.The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), the division in charge of protecting consumers from predatory conduct, released a 26 page report on domestic bank practices. The organization found that retail banking culture encourages employees to sell products, with little regard for the consumer. Even worse, they found that banks don’t have adequate measures in place to “monitor, identify and mitigate these risks.” It’s kind of a big deal, especially when you dig through the mortgage sections.
Disclaimer
First off, the FCAC is not addressing any alleged breaches of market conduct. If there were any, they have to be proven by a separate “track” of the FCAC, and they’ll enforce if required…

Nearly half of all new condos sales that were finalized last year in the Greater Toronto Area were for rental purposes, but income from them could be falling short of ownership costs, according to a new study by CIBC.

TORONTO _ Hydro One Ltd. says it has received antitrust clearance in the United States for its deal to acquire U.S. energy company Avista Corp.
The Ontario-based utility says the 30-day waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act expired Thursday night.
Hydro One announced the friendly deal to acquire Avista last summer in an agreement that valued the company at $6.7 billion.
The deal still requires several other approvals, including those from utility commissions in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Alaska.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission must also sign off on the transaction and clearance is required by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
The agreement has received approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as well as Avista shareholders.
The post Hydro One deal to buy U.S. company Avista receives antitrust clearance appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

TORONTO _ The Ontario Securities Commission is gathering information on several cryptocurrency trading platforms after it received a number of complaints.
The regulator says the platforms, and any businesses that allow cryptocurrencies that are securities to trade on them, may be offside securities laws.
It says any platform that offers this type of trading must determine whether it is a marketplace. Marketplaces are required to comply with the rules governing exchanges or alternative trading systems.
The regulator says to date, none have been recognized as an exchange, or exempted from recognition.
The move by the Ontario regulator comes amid the rise of initial coin offerings, which may be used by companies as an alternative way to raise money.
With little regulation, initial coin offerings have raised worries about possible financial scams.
The post OSC gathering info on cryptocurrency trading platforms after complaints appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

Are you a DINK couple – dual income, no kids – looking to splurge on travel, shopping or dining out using your credit card? These options and tips can help.

TORONTO — Canadians rushing to file their taxes before the looming April 30 deadline should stop to check the changes the Canada Revenue Agency has made since last season. Whether you’re a parent, a student, a commuter or a caregiver, these changes may have an impact on your taxes.
Fertility-related expenses
Those who need medical intervention to conceive a child may now be eligible to claim certain expenses, even if they do not have a medical condition. Prior to the change to the Medical Expenses Tax credit in 2017, individuals had to prove medically that they had difficulty conceiving a child in order to get tax relief. The CRA has now expanded eligibility for this tax credit.
“It’s becoming far more common, people are having their kids older and they’re using these technologies that weren’t available to everybody 20 years ago,” said H&R Block senior tax professional Valorie Elgar.
What’s more, those who have fertility-related expenses for any of the 10 previous calendar years and have not claimed them can request a change to previous income tax and benefit returns to include these eligible expenses…

Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego, Calif. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
So Donald Trump has dispatched the military  National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to—well, it’s unclear what the president imagines the troops would do as hundreds of Central American migrants head north towards the boundary, most of them to seek asylum.
Does he envision the guards firing warning shots (or worse) as migrants approach American soil? Catching them and making them prisoners in some sort of imagined war on illegal immigration? Physically blocking people by forming a human wall of National Guard troops—a placeholder for the real wall of his presidential dreams?
In reality, removed from the fantasy reels playing in Trump’s brain, the National Guard will have a limited role. They can assist, provide surveillance, give medical aid and help process refugee claimants. The administrations of Barak Obama and George W. Bush sent National Guard personnel to reinforce border patrols, too; under Bush, the troops were unarmed, and Mexico says it’s been reassured that the Trump-deployed guards won’t have guns, either…

Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego, Calif. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
So Donald Trump has dispatched the military  National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to—well, it’s unclear what the president imagines the troops would do as hundreds of Central American migrants head north towards the boundary, most of them to seek asylum.
Does he envision the guards firing warning shots (or worse) as migrants approach American soil? Catching them and making them prisoners in some sort of imagined war on illegal immigration? Physically blocking people by forming a human wall of National Guard troops—a placeholder for the real wall of his presidential dreams?
In reality, removed from the fantasy reels playing in Trump’s brain, the National Guard will have a limited role. They can assist, provide surveillance, give medical aid and help process refugee claimants. The administrations of Barak Obama and George W. Bush sent National Guard personnel to reinforce border patrols, too; under Bush, the troops were unarmed, and Mexico says it’s been reassured that the Trump-deployed guards won’t have guns, either…

Looking into a post-secondary education for the first time can be pretty overwhelming, and figuring out how you’ll pay for it all can add extra stress. To help, here are five options to keep in mind while going through the process.

TIP: Apply for everything you qualify for! Check scholarshipscanada.com and yconic.com.

TIP: Find out if your parents are helping you out. They may have an RESP or other savings.
Figure out how much you need to pay for school with the RBC Student Budget Calculator

TIP: Learn more at canlearn.ca.

TIP: Look for job sites catered to students and new grads such as TalentEgg and jobpostings.ca.

TIP: Check out how the RBC Student Line of Credit could help you.
For year-round student finance tips, check out the RBC Student Solutions Hub.
 
® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada.
Personal lending products are provided by Royal Bank of Canada and are subject to its standard lending criteria. Some conditions and restrictions apply.
The post Top 5 Ways to Pay for School appeared first on Macleans…

Looking into a post-secondary education for the first time can be pretty overwhelming, and figuring out how you’ll pay for it all can add extra stress. To help, here are five options to keep in mind while going through the process.

TIP: Apply for everything you qualify for! Check scholarshipscanada.com and yconic.com.

TIP: Find out if your parents are helping you out. They may have an RESP or other savings.
Figure out how much you need to pay for school with the RBC Student Budget Calculator

TIP: Learn more at canlearn.ca.

TIP: Look for job sites catered to students and new grads such as TalentEgg and jobpostings.ca.

TIP: Check out how the RBC Student Line of Credit could help you.
For year-round student finance tips, check out the RBC Student Solutions Hub.
 
® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada.
Personal lending products are provided by Royal Bank of Canada and are subject to its standard lending criteria. Some conditions and restrictions apply.
The post Top 5 Ways to Pay for School appeared first on Macleans…

TORONTO _ Hudson’s Bay Co. is the latest Canadian company to be hit with a data breach, saying that customer payment card information may have been stolen from shoppers at certain Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Lord & Taylor stores in North America.
A spokesperson for retailer would not comment on whether any specific Canadian locations were affected, but did say there is no indication the breach affects any of HBC’s other digital platforms, Hudson’s Bay stores or Home Outfitters locations.
HBC released little information on the breach itself on Sunday, but a New York-based cybersecurity firm said it had analyzed the available data and found that information from five-million credit cards had been compromised.
Gemini Advisory LLC said in a report that the information was stolen from 83 Saks Fifth Avenue or Saks Off Fifth stores, and from all Lord & Taylor locations.
The firm found that three Canadian Saks locations were exposed to the breach: Sherway Gardens in Toronto, Bramalea City Centre in Brampton, Ont…

Q: Our 19-year-old son has been accepted into an aviation program. The cost of the program is $100,000. Government Student Loan funding is not enough to cover the program cost, therefore we looked into a student line of credit. Unfortunately, a pilot was not listed as a profession that would get approval for a $100,000 student line of credit; the only option was to use our own personal line of credit.
In order to protect ourselves financially in case something happens to our son, I would like to purchase life insurance but I’m not sure what type of life insurance and if disability insurance is also needed. Once his debit is paid off I would like to see him continue with the life insurance policy so he has coverage if he decides to start a family. Would he be able to increase the policy coverage? Or is it in his best financial interest to incorporate future costs now?
—Diana
A: Diana, this is a great question. This is a good example of life insurance protecting a financial risk, which is one of the main purposes of life insurance…

Ready to start taking advantage of your top-notch credit status? Here are three moves to consider once you join the ‘excellent’ credit score club.

Looking into a post-secondary education for the first time can be pretty overwhelming, and figuring out how you’ll pay for it all can add extra stress. To help, here are five options to keep in mind while going through the process.

TIP: Apply for everything you qualify for! Check scholarshipscanada.com and yconic.com.

TIP: Find out if your parents are helping you out. They may have an RESP or other savings.
Figure out how much you need to pay for school with the RBC Student Budget Calculator

TIP: Learn more at canlearn.ca.

TIP: Look for job sites catered to students and new grads such as TalentEgg and jobpostings.ca.

TIP: Check out how the RBC Student Line of Credit could help you.
For year-round student finance tips, check out the RBC Student Solutions Hub.
 
® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada.
Personal lending products are provided by Royal Bank of Canada and are subject to its standard lending criteria. Some conditions and restrictions apply.
The post Top 5 Ways to Pay for School appeared first on Macleans…

Q: Our 19-year-old son has been accepted into an aviation program. The cost of the program is $100,000. Government Student Loan funding is not enough to cover the program cost, therefore we looked into a student line of credit. Unfortunately, a pilot was not listed as a profession that would get approval for a $100,000 student line of credit; the only option was to use our own personal line of credit.
In order to protect ourselves financially in case something happens to our son, I would like to purchase life insurance but I’m not sure what type of life insurance and if disability insurance is also needed. Once his debit is paid off I would like to see him continue with the life insurance policy so he has coverage if he decides to start a family. Would he be able to increase the policy coverage? Or is it in his best financial interest to incorporate future costs now?
—Diana
A: Diana, this is a great question. This is a good example of life insurance protecting a financial risk, which is one of the main purposes of life insurance…

Here’s our latest recap of Canadian mortgage and real estate news. This week we look at: The latest housing affordability report, which came out with fairly predictable results How the post-OSFI stress test bump in business for credit unions may not be materializing What HomEquity’s 2017 originations data says about the trend towards reverse mortgages […]

The head of one of Canada’s largest banks is urging the federal government to stem the flow of investment capital from this country to the United States — because, he warns, it’s already leaving in “real time.”

WASHINGTON – First, the United States imposed a tax on Chinese steel and aluminum. Then, China counterpunched Monday with tariffs on a host of U.S. products, including apples, pork and ginseng.
On Wall Street, the stock market buckled on the prospect of an all-out trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. But it hasn’t come to that — not yet, anyway.
“We’re in a trade slap-fight right now,” not a trade war, said Derek Scissors, resident scholar and China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
China is a relatively insignificant supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States. And the $3 billion in U.S. products that Beijing targeted Monday amount to barely 2 per cent of American goods exported to China.
But the dispute could escalate, and quickly. Already, in a separate move, the United States is drawing up a list of about $50 billion in Chinese imports to tax in an effort to punish Beijing for stealing American technology or forcing U…

Toronto’s main stock index joined U.S. markets in a downward swing Monday as Chinese tariff action rattled investors after the holiday weekend.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite closed down 153.84 points at 15,213.45, led by declines in energy and health care.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 458.92 points at 23,644.19. The S&P 500 index was down 58.99 points at 2,581.88 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 193.33 points at 6,870.12.
The Canadian dollar averaged 77.47 cents US, down 0.09 of a US cent.
The May crude contract closed down $1.93 at US$63.01 per barrel and the May natural gas contract ended down five cents at US$2.68 per mmBTU.
The June gold contract closed up $19.60 at US$1,346.90 an ounce and the May copper contract was up two cents at US$3.05 a pound.
The post Stock markets take a dive in first trading of Q2 as tariffs rattle investors appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

Q: Our 19-year-old son has been accepted into an aviation program. The cost of the program is $100,000. Government Student Loan funding is not enough to cover the program cost, therefore we looked into a student line of credit. Unfortunately, a pilot was not listed as a profession that would get approval for a $100,000 student line of credit; the only option was to use our own personal line of credit.
In order to protect ourselves financially in case something happens to our son, I would like to purchase life insurance but I’m not sure what type of life insurance and if disability insurance is also needed. Once his debit is paid off I would like to see him continue with the life insurance policy so he has coverage if he decides to start a family. Would he be able to increase the policy coverage? Or is it in his best financial interest to incorporate future costs now?
—Diana
A: Diana, this is a great question. This is a good example of life insurance protecting a financial risk, which is one of the main purposes of life insurance…

Looking into a post-secondary education for the first time can be pretty overwhelming, and figuring out how you’ll pay for it all can add extra stress. To help, here are five options to keep in mind while going through the process.

TIP: Apply for everything you qualify for! Check scholarshipscanada.com and yconic.com.

TIP: Find out if your parents are helping you out. They may have an RESP or other savings.
Figure out how much you need to pay for school with the RBC Student Budget Calculator

TIP: Learn more at canlearn.ca.

TIP: Look for job sites catered to students and new grads such as TalentEgg and jobpostings.ca.

TIP: Check out how the RBC Student Line of Credit could help you.
For year-round student finance tips, check out the RBC Student Solutions Hub.
 
® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada.
Personal lending products are provided by Royal Bank of Canada and are subject to its standard lending criteria. Some conditions and restrictions apply.
The post Top 5 Ways to Pay for School appeared first on Macleans…

It’s time that I came out with the truth. You might know me as Tabatha Southey, humour writer, but I’ve been moonlighting, drawn back to my second career by the 2016 American elections. That’s right: I originally trained as a chartered Lookin’ Mighty Guilty consultant, and I guess I’m here to blow my own horn because I’ve had a such a great week!
I’ve been employed as Donald Trump’s Lookin’ Mighty Guilty consultant since May of 2016. Until then, Trump was getting decent metrics in “shiftiness” and “skeeviness,” but I feel like when I came on board, I tipped the scales to “guilty.”
For starters: When Trump said “It’s none of your business” after George Stephanopoulos asked about the then-presumptive GOP nominee what his tax rate was? That was me!
I should give credit where it’s due: Trump had, after all, been teasing his tax returns like he’d filed a nice set of nipples (one corporate, one personal) since 2011. Was he going to reveal them? Was he going to let them slip? The mogul’s response was always a “Ma-a-a-a-y-be,” and nothing that coy ever looks innocent…

Globalnews.caUS visa applicants may soon be asked for social media identities: State DeptGlobalnews.caIn a broad expansion of the information gathered from applicants for U.S. visas, the federal government is proposing to collect social media identities from nearly everyone who seeks entry into the United States, according to a State Department filing …14.7 million visitors to US could face social media screeningToronto StarHand over my social media account to get a US visa? No thank youThe GuardianUS to seek social-media information from all visa applicantsThe Globe and MailBBC News -Belfast Telegraph -Quartz -ABC Newsall 149 news articles »

It’s time that I came out with the truth. You might know me as Tabatha Southey, humour writer, but I’ve been moonlighting, drawn back to my second career by the 2016 American elections. That’s right: I originally trained as a chartered Lookin’ Mighty Guilty consultant, and I guess I’m here to blow my own horn because I’ve had a such a great week!
I’ve been employed as Donald Trump’s Lookin’ Mighty Guilty consultant since May of 2016. Until then, Trump was getting decent metrics in “shiftiness” and “skeeviness,” but I feel like when I came on board, I tipped the scales to “guilty.”
For starters: When Trump said “It’s none of your business” after George Stephanopoulos asked about the then-presumptive GOP nominee what his tax rate was? That was me!
I should give credit where it’s due: Trump had, after all, been teasing his tax returns like he’d filed a nice set of nipples (one corporate, one personal) since 2011. Was he going to reveal them? Was he going to let them slip? The mogul’s response was always a “Ma-a-a-a-y-be,” and nothing that coy ever looks innocent…

Not all credit card terms are negotiable, but many of them, including late fees and interest rates, are. These tips will help you get better terms on your card.

Globalnews.caUS visa applicants may soon be asked for social media identities: State DeptGlobalnews.caIn a broad expansion of the information gathered from applicants for U.S. visas, the federal government is proposing to collect social media identities from nearly everyone who seeks entry into the United States, according to a State Department filing …14.7 million visitors to US could face social media screeningToronto StarHand over my social media account to get a US visa? No thank youThe GuardianUS to seek social-media information from all visa applicantsThe Globe and MailBBC News -Belfast Telegraph -Quartz -ABC Newsall 149 news articles »

Jason Lietaer is a conservative strategist and commentator who is the president of the national communications firm Enterprise Canada. He is an aspiring participant of championship parades to be held for the Leafs and Raptors.
Over the past several years, fuelled by the rise of social media and an increasingly politically divided populace around the world, excessive partisanship has flourished. It’s a growth industry. If it were a stock, you would buy. You would mortgage your house to buy and then buy a little more on margin, just to be safe.
I think most thoughtful people consider this is to be bad. The tone of the last U.S. election campaign could be compared to a raging dumpster fire, but that would be an insult to dumpsters, to fires, and to dumpster fires.
One of the men in my line of work, a genuinely nice guy named Ian Capstick, wrote a piece in Maclean’s announcing he was done with partisanship. The piece calls for more empathy, more reasoned debate and a little bit of self-awareness…

OTTAWA _ The Canadian economy contracted 0.1 per cent in January, hurt by unscheduled maintenance shutdowns in the oilpatch and weakness in the real estate sector following mortgage rule changes, Statistics Canada said Thursday
The agency said the drop in real gross domestic product for January compared with growth of 0.2 per cent in December.
Economists had expected an increase of 0.1 per cent for the first month of the year, according to Thomson Reuters.
“This year started off with more of a whimper than a bang, at least from a growth perspective,” TD Bank senior economist Brian DePratto wrote in a report.
“As usual though, the trend is more important than the noise. Clearly the pace of economic activity has moderated from last year’s red-hot first half performance, but this is to be expected in an economy with little slack remaining.”
Goods-producing industries fell 0.4 per cent in January, while services-producing industries was essentially unchanged for the month…